Eighth Harry Potter Book Announced, First Seven Now Available as a $15 Omnibus

The Washington Post and many other sites report that JK Rowling has realized that the majority of her fans will never be able to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the stage play set nineteen years after the end of the Harry Potter books, and so fans around the world are finally getting what we have craved for the past eight years.

On Wednesday Rowling announced that the script for the play would be published as a book (of sorts). Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is due out on 31 July, the day after the play opens in London, but it will be less a book than an unfinished script for the stage play.

According to the press release, the ebook "will comprise the version of the play script early in the production’s preview period, several weeks prior to the opening performances".

So this won't be the eight Harry Potter novel we were hoping for, but it won't be a complete loss. I, for one, want to know what happened after the epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows, so if this ebook is cheap enough I just might get it.

The few details mentioned in the announcement have me intrigued:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.

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Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."

22 Comments on Eighth Harry Potter Book Announced, First Seven Now Available as a $15 Omnibus

Personally, I’m hoping she goes ahead and novelizes the book at some point, for the benefit of folks who want to read prose, not stage directions. But if she doesn’t, I expect plenty of fanfic authors out there will be happy to give it a shot.

JK seems hell-bent on not giving her audience what they want. I find it so odd. Granted, she’s filthy rich and can do whatever she wishes; however, for average fans of the books, it’s been a disappointing ten years of random musings and fluff. It’s like we’re all stuck in Harry Potter purgatory.

Part of the problem is the media coverage she gets. For example, this book or even this article. The headline implies it’s an actual book in the series. Clearly, it is not. Any time JK does anything, it gets WAY more coverage than the content actually deserves and often it gets clickbait-style headlines that exacerbate the situation, constantly creating excitement and almost immediate disappointment once you read what she’s actually announced…every few weeks…for years. A lot of people are going to buy this book and be rather disappointed by it because news outlets and bookstores are desperate to turn it into more than it is. She should know better when making these announcements but she doesn’t bear all of the blame.

“Any time JK does anything, it gets WAY more coverage than the content actually deserves and often it gets clickbait-style headlines that exacerbate the situation, constantly creating excitement and almost immediate disappointment once you read what she’s actually announced…every few weeks…for years.”

I agree with you for the most part; Rowling does get a lot more attention than the stories merit. I would have passed on this story except that the second part made it worth the work.

Also, one problem I faced with this article was that an accurate title would have come across as snide or nitpicky. The best I could do was to emphasize the detail about the script and warn people off.

Rowling could have made more money making this stage play into a proper book, but plenty of people will buy the stage play script. In a positive note, some fans will be introduced to a stage play script. It is good to experience it and should help younger fans read Shakespeare in high school.

What makes you think she won’t? We already know there are going to be two separate editions of the script book so they’re already double-dipping and they’re not even out of the gate yet. Rowling (or her team of marketing advisors) has shown a lot of savvy in marketing Harry Potter so far.

Stands to reason that if she is going to novelize it, she probably won’t even announce that before the script goes on sale, as it could harm the sales of the script.

so not a book. oh JK, you could have made so much more if it was a book first (-wait 6 months-) then adapted it to the stage. plus its not JK’s writing, its from the director and playwright attached to the project.

from Playbill: “Producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender are developing the new stage production that will explore the origins of Harry Potter’s story. Rowling will be a co-producer and will collaborate on the project, but not write it herself.”

it is not a “book”. it is a “script”. as a performer, trust me on that. actors do not bring their books to set or stage, they bring their scripts. a collection of plays placed into a volume is not a book. no one has ever taught the books of Shakespeare, they have studied the works and plays. if by “book” you mean the work was physically bound together with paper, bindings and covers.. then well done.

The Lion King stage play has made over 4 billion dollars. It’s the biggest single money making form of entertainment, books, movies, TV, etc. ever.

There’s a ton of money in theater. As far as her audience not being able to see it in London, it it’s successful it will tour the world on the road. Anyone above poverty level, will eventually be able to see it somewhere if the they really want to.

And then there’s nothing stopping her from writing books later (maybe she already has). There is a danger, however, if she satisfies her fans too much with new books, they might not bother to go see the play. Making sure the play is successful should be her biggest priority right now. A hit play will generate enormous amounts of money and also sell more of her old books.

you make some excellent points Mackay. even though the lion king was a hugely popular movie first and won two oscars, i’m not it would have been as huge on broadway had it arrived their first. hopefully as a producer only she will still have heavy sway on how the script is written or be altered as they go further into production.